Chapter four

The faint rays of sunlight shone through the dangling icicles from the window facing the lake and I simply laid in bed as I continued to watch the light envelope the whole dagger of ice. Soon the sun invaded the depths of my and Helena’s bedroom and I knew the first day of university had begun.

I glanced over at Helena’s sleeping form and silently threw the sheets back from my body. Immediately all the trapped warmth from under the blanket escaped and I shivered slightly when the cool air replaced it. I didn’t know why, but my mind constantly strayed over to the Elementals and how they would be seen by the rest of the students. I honestly didn’t want the same thing to happen as last year and I could only hope they looked past their ‘label’ as Elementals.

My mouth stretch into an ‘O’ as I yawned and I wiped my eyes with the heel of my hand to rid myself of my sleepiness. I hopped out of bed and walked out of the bedroom into the rest of the apartment and heard the chirping of the morning birds as they gathered food for their chicks. The meadow in the corner of the lounge was the only source of bright colours with its many multicoloured flowers as opposed to the white snow outside.

I always woke early, and usually on warmer seasons I’d prefer to go for a jog around the lake but with all the snow surrounding me all I had to do was sit on the balcony and inhale the cool water molecules around me to feel at ease and relaxed. I snatched up a raison bun from the counter and sauntered towards the balcony.

I walked through the glass doors and brushed the snow that covered the chairs on the balcony before sitting down. Outside the snow airbrushed the usually green fields with untouched whiteness and I leaned back in the chair allowing the coldness to soak into me. I rolled my finger around as I pointed it at the railing and watched the as the coating of snow rolled up into a ball. I stopped the snowball on the corner of the railing and did the same to the railing on my left, rolling it up towards the other ball. As the two snowballs met I flicked my finger up and the smaller one jumped up to sit on top of the bigger one.

I smiled and picked at the raison bun hollowing it out and scraping around the edges. I stood up and popped two raisons on the surface of the top snowball and a few more underneath then placed the rest of the bun on to the top.

I laughed at the mini snowman I’d made and dusted the crumbs over the side of the balcony. “I think I’ll call you ‘Bob’” I spoke to the smiling snowman. “Yep, Bob the Snowan... it’s got a ring to it”

I chuckled and shook my head before heading back inside the warm apartment and headed towards the shower to start getting ready for my day.

After my very long shower I walked out of the bathroom and saw that Helena was already fixing her bed, throwing the bright yellow sheets to lie over the mattress when she looked up to smile at me. “Good morning, Val. Are you excited about starting classes again?”

I shrugged my shoulders, throwing a leather jacket over my long sleeve grey top. “I’m more interested about how everything will go with the Elementals to be honest”

She quirked her head and raised an eyebrow, “You think something bad will happen?”

“I’m not sure. That’s what I’m interested in. I mean, before the holidays everyone treated them like they didn’t exist except for the odd stare and whisper but now that they’ve had time to think things through I wonder whether they’ll revert back to an angry mob to accept them”

“Who knows... for all we know things might not even change”

I nodded my head and shooed Helena towards the bathroom, “How about this. You go shower and get ready then we’ll walk with the Elementals to their classes. I’m sure our teachers will understand anyway”

She nodded and scurried off to shower and I walked outside grabbing a croissant to munch on while I waited. I already had everything I needed ready to go and was really just waiting on Helena and Derrek so we could head off. Just as the thought ran through my head a knock sounded at the door and I stood to open it, smiling when I saw Derrek leaning in the doorway. “Well, you’re a sight for sore eyes,Tadpole”

“Morning Sparky” I greeted him and let him in, throwing a croissant his way.

“Where’s my greeting?” Blake called from the doorway and I noticed Derrek roll his eyes.

“You’re not important enough for one Frosty-“

“Morning Blake. Helena’s just about ready, then we’ll walk with you and the others to your classes” I interrupted Derrek. Immediately his head spun round to face me and his gaping face told me he wasn’t happy with the decision.

“What?! Why?” he complained.

“Because Sparky” I sighed, “We don’t know how everyone else will react this year. Whether things would get better, worse or stay the same. I just think that we need to be a little cautious is all” He huffed and mumbled something incomprehensible but I knew he’d come along with us anyway.

***

With Blake already with us we only had two rooms to visit to gather the rest of the Elementals, the closest being Bree and Sophia. We shut the door and headed off down the corridor. The hallway was filled with students either heading down to classes already or just hanging around and catching up and I didn’t miss the lingering gazes from the girls and the hard stares from the guys as we passed them.

Blake knocked on the door of their apartment and I heard someone on the other side before opening the door. Sophia stood in the doorway with Bree just behind her and they both looked confused. “What are you all doing here?”

Blake explained the situation and like Derrek, Sophia rolled her eyes but went along with the plan anyway. “Now we just need to get Cara and Cameron and we’ll drop you off at your first class” I said tugging on Derrek’s hand.

“Tadpole, are we seriously going to babysit them ALL day?!” he whined.

“It depends Sparky. If everything seems okay then no, otherwise we’ll see. From what I noticed they’re only staring so from what I can see at the moment, no we won’t be ‘babysitting’ them all day” I explained to him, “Geez, it’s like having to talk to a child sometimes”

Sophia and Bree were deep in conversation leaving Helena and Blake to awkwardly walk behind us in silence but I ignored them. It looked like Helena seemed to have an aversion to Blake, she was alright around the others but looked a little uncomfortable around him. I tucked that little bit of information in the back of my mind and decided I might ask her about it later. Blake wasn’t a bad guy.

We rounded the last corner and stopped suddenly at what we saw just outside of Cara and Cameron’s apartment. “What the hell?” I whispered.

Cameron and Cara were standing in front of their door while girls flocked around Cameron. They were leaning in close and obviously invading his personal space while he awkwardly tried to usher Cara and himself down the hallway. Cameron was gripping Cara’s hand and she just looked completely down trodden. Her face was anxious as she stared at the ground while the other girls attempted to gain his attention.

“Hey! What the hell is going on here?” Sophia shouted. “Get lost you piranhas, he’s already obviously taken!”

The girls jumped back at the sound of Sophia’s shouting but simply scoffed and walked away glancing back at Cameron. They passed us sounding exactly like high school girls giggling about the popular jock and I was completely bewildered when I saw them eye Blake too.

I hadn’t expected that.

 “What the...” Derrek seemed just as flabbergasted as I was.

Cara and Cameron immediately came over to us and I could see that Cara was close to tears. Bree immediately wrapped her arms around her and comforted her while I turned to Cameron. “What the hell was that about?”

He scrunched his face and scratched the back of his head while looking for the right words, “I don’t really know. Cara and I were just going to walk over to Sophia and Bree’s apartment but those girls were standing outside the room next to ours and they just kind of... well... I don’t know. It was just overwhelming, they kept trying to give me their numbers and didn’t care when I told them I was with Cara”

“They didn’t even care I was right there next to him” Cara sniffed. I felt sorry for her. Not only was she petrified to use her abilities but her self esteem was being trodden on by wannabe two dollar hookers.

“It’ll be okay. I’m sure it’ll die down” Cameron grasped her hand and soon we were all heading down to their first class, Skills class.

We took the elevator down and I was surprised to see Mr Arbit waiting outside the class. “Good morning students” he smiled brightly, “You five go ahead I actually wanted to speak with Valerie, Derrek and Helena”

The Elementals exchanged looks but nodded and walked inside the room while the three of us turned curiously to our dean. “Sir? How did you know we would walk them here?” I asked.

“Well, I just assumed that you would feel worried about them. I also wanted to make sure they actually came to class” he chuckled. He ebony hair was still slicked back but looked like he had a little more silver streaked along the sides. His grey suit was crisp and a little white flower sat delicately in his chest pocket.

“O-kay... what did you want to talk to us about?” Derrek wondered out loud.

“I want you to sit in in their classes. Just for today that is, can’t have you falling behind in your own classes. Just watch them and take note if they seem to be holding back in their abilities or anything that they seem to be trying to hide. Have they spoken about Malum at all?”

I sighed and shook my head. “No, it’s a hard subject to bring up and I can understand why they don’t want to talk about it” I replied meekly.

“That’s alright Valerie. I just have a feeling they’re not telling us everything and that bit of information they’re withholding could be extremely important whether they realise it or not” Mr Arbit’s eyebrows were knitted together in deep concentration.

“Do you think he’ll come back Sir?” Derrek stepped forward and wrapped an arm around my waist as he spoke.

“I’m not sure Derrek. When Malum was a high member he was not known to be courageous. He sat by and let others do the work while he hid behind his Stinger abilities. From what you told me, he’s weak. I don’t believe he’d come back here while he so weak”

“Yeah... while he’s weak” I agreed absent-mindedly.

“Well, you three head on in and observe how our new students do” Mr Arbit ushered us. We walked into a small room and I noticed the Elementals didn’t seem too excited to be here.

***

“You really think she’s even mentally stable to teach at all, even more so the fact that she’s teaching a completely new and experimental class?” Helena whispered to me and Derrek.

“God, I have no idea... it doesn’t seem so” Derrek replied.

I stared at the old lady who had waddled into the class ten minutes ago and her rounded bottom that wriggled side to side as she searched for something in her giant bag. She looked like one of those grandmothers from fairy tales, greying hair, kind eyes, faint blush across her weathered face and small rectangular spectacles. She wore a floral dress with a pale pink cardigan over the top and carried a carpet patterned bag with her.

She actually seemed like an eighty-five year old Mary Poppins!

“Ah found it!” she declared happily standing upright from her slouched position while she searched in her bag.

She held up a piece of wood the size of a post-it note and slowly walked over to the opposite side of the room that was cleared away from everything. She placed it on the ground and stepped back only to bump into Bree.

“Woops, sorry dear. I didn’t see you there” she apologized. Derrek just shook his head and rubbed at his temples, clearly losing patience for Mary Poppins senior.

With her fingers spread wide apart she swiped across her body and the piece of wood instantly widened and to the width of a door. She held her hand to the ground and slowly dragged it up towards the ceiling and the wooden rectangle grew larger and larger. All of a sudden she rolled her hands together almost as though she was moulding a sculpture and I watched in amazement when the rectangle began to creak and bend with her every movement.

“What is she doing?” I heard the Elementals exclaim.

The teacher dusted her hands and smiled brightly again and when I looked over to where the wooden block originally sat a wooden statue, similar to what knights would practise sword fighting on, stood.

“Oh dear, I forgot to introduce myself! How silly, I am sometimes quite forgetful. My name is Ms Avia and I will be your teacher for Skills. Now, since we are not actually quite certain how your abilities work or what they can do we will start of by seeing you demonstrate your offensive and defensive skills”

Then to my shock, her posture changed so that she stood tall and upright and she stepped back into an offensive position. As she moved the wooden statue began to move as well and imitate her movements, it looked as though she was a puppet master and the statue was her puppet.

“Who’s first?”

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A/N

It’s been a while, sorry *winces*

A lot of shizz happened last week and yeah... just wasn’t in the right mind set for writing.
Hope this one is okay, it’s leading off to the offensive and defensive skills that the Elementals have. Who’s your favourite Elemental? Or do you favour an Abled? =)

Nix <3